Barclay’s Lose Millions as Latitude Goes into Administration

Marketing agency, Latitude, this week went into administration before being bought out in a “pre-pack” deal led by its management and Vitruvian, their private equity agency.

This has led to their bank, Barclays, writing off £5million of debt as the Warrington-based company look to secure the jobs of their 90 plus staff and continue to operate under the “business as usual” mantra.

Second Major Investment in Two Years

The digital marketing sector offers plenty of opportunities for growth especially considering that online advertising spend over-took television advertising spend in 2009.

Latitude is seen by many as one of the leading digital marketing groups but they have reportedly struggled during the past year. In 2008 they were the subject of a £55million acquisition from Vitruvian, which included a £10million loan from Barclays. This MBO (management buyout) saw Latitude’s founder, Dylan Thwaites, leave the company.

Reports suggest the size of this loan had since shrunk to £5million but that has now been written off following the new buy-out, which increases Vitruvian’s stake in the business.

Latitude insists that the investment made by the management and Vitruvian will mean staff and clients are out of administration.

“All the clients and all the staff are now out of administration”

On a positive note, the extra finance gained from the MBO is likely to help them continue to service their roster of clients in a competitive manner. Latitude CEO, Alex Hoye, is quoted as saying:

“Latitude Group Limited was put into administration and Latitude Digital Marketing Limited bought all the assets. All the clients and all the staff are now out of administration and received additional funding from myself and Vitruvian.”